Page:Literary Landmarks of Oxford.djvu/99

71 Very little of the detail of Burton's private life is known, and the personal anecdotes concerning him which have come down to us, are few and far between. Wood, however, tells us that he was that curious combination, "a melancholy, humorous person." Having foretold the date of his own demise, he kept, by accident or by design, his appointment with Death; Wood reporting certain of his friends as declaring that he sent his soul up to Heaven through a noose about his neck, in order that his prophecy might be fulfilled, thereby proving the unusual melancholy of his humor.

Another authority states that in "the intervals of his vapors he would be exceeding cheerful, and then he would fall into such a state of despondency that he could only get himself relief by going to the Bridge-foot, at Oxford, and hearing the bargemen swear at one another, at which he would set his hands at his side, and laugh most profusely." This would seem to be a proof of the extraordinary humor of his melancholy.

The bargemen at the foot of the Bridge at Oxford to-day have lost all sense of humor in their profanity, which is simply melancholy unrelieved.

Burton gave up the ghost in Christ Church; and he is buried in the Lady Chapel of the Cathedral.

John Fell entered Christ Church at the early age of eleven years, and on the nomination of his